Lehi Sports
Local senior athlete wins two world titles in Korea
Beky Beaton / Lehi Free Press
A three-medal performance from Marsha Baird highlighted the USATF Utah showing at the World Masters Athletics Outdoor Championships, contested August 22-September 3 in Daegu, South Korea.
Competing in the Women’s 50-54 division, Baird captured a pair of world titles, winning the Heptathlon with 5,479 points and helping Team USA to victory in the 4x100m Relay in 52.14 seconds.
She added a silver medal in the Javelin Throw with a mark of 36.69m to complete her three-medal championship performance and adding to her already long list of accomplishments in the sport.
Baird also recorded two additional top-five finishes, placing fifth in the Long Jump with a mark of 4.47m and fifth in the Shot Put at 11.75m.
“The part I loved most about World Masters Athletics in Korea is connecting with my friends from all over the world and making new connections,” Baird said. “Track and Field has always allowed me to connect with people; however, master’s is on a whole other level.
“As very mature adults, the connection is stronger and more genuine,” she said. “We care about the competition, but we seem to care about each other more. During competition there is a special camaraderie that takes place. The spirit of the games becomes US.”
Born in the tiny Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, Baird started competing in the heptathlon upon her admission to Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) in 1993. Two years later, she transferred to Brigham Young University on an athletic scholarship and continued her career there.
While competing for the Cougars, Baird placed ninth in the heptathlon at the outdoor NCAA Championships and contributed to a runner-up finish for the women’s track and field team at the Western Athletic Conference meet in San Diego (CA) during her junior year.
After graduating from BYU with a master’s degree in social work, Baird began training with the goal of qualifying for an Olympic berth. In her first major global event, Baird claimed a silver medal in heptathlon at the 1998 Central American and Caribbean Games in Maracaibo, Venezuela.
On her Olympic debut in Sydney 2000, Baird became the first-ever athlete from Trinidad and Tobago to compete in the heptathlon, finishing 22nd with 5627 points. At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, she finished 25th with a Trinidad and Tobago record total of 5962 points.
Baird was the national record holder for her country in the Javelin from 2000-2018. In August 2015, she competed in her first World Masters Championships in Lyon, France. She earned individual gold in the W40 heptathlon, javelin and long jump.
Dropping down an age group, she also anchored the victorious women’s over-35 4×100m relay squad which set a world record for their division in this event.
Baird has continued to compete on the Master’s circuit in both indoor and outdoor events, earning a pile of medals and setting new records in the W50-54 Heptathlon and Pentathlon in 2024.
